“There’s no point in waiting ma’am, the bus won’t pass this morning. In front of the stop on avenue Jean-Jaurès in Aubervilliers, Bernadette, 67, seems distraught. The screen above her head does indicate “information unavailable”, but she still hoped the bus would pass. “I usually take line 7 to go to work at La Courneuve, but it stopped this morning. »
Like all the inhabitants of the city of Seine-Saint-Denis, Bernadette has a bitter taste this Friday morning. The town wakes up with the scars of a new night of violence. The third since the death of Nahel, killed by a policeman on Tuesday in Nanterre. But the latter was even more intense than the previous ones between shop windows shattered, garbage cans burned, and even more impressive, the RATP depot center where twelve buses were completely destroyed by fire.
“This is my stop, where I take the bus almost every day…”
In this open-air car park, an annex to the RATP center located on the other side of the city, thirteen buses from the management were parked overnight due to work on the main center. During the night, rioters managed to enter the center, which also serves as a bus station, to attack buses with Molotov cocktails, destroying eight diesel vehicles and four hybrid vehicles.
These vehicles cost between 200,000 and 300,000 euros per unit, the bill for the night would therefore amount to several million euros. “We were woken up all night with my husband because of the firecrackers, testifies Samia who lives a few tens of meters away, but much stronger explosions made us jump. Frightened, they rush to the window and see the fire in the depot. “The explosions were actually the tires of the buses bursting into flames. »
Through the railings of the depot, she gazes with annoyance at the crimson carcasses of the buses lying on the ground. She points to the panel for line 234 of the Fort d’Aubervilliers station, located a few meters away: “This is my stop, where I take the bus almost every day, to go to my medical appointments, to shopping or to see my son. And my bus must be one of those…”
“I can’t walk to work…”
It has been three times since she woke up that she has come to see the commotion in front of the centre. Not to admire the journalists but to find an RATP agent who could tell him when the line will be back in service. This morning, she was there when Jean Castex, president of the RATP came, accompanied by Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport and Stéphane Troussel, president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis. The former Prime Minister showed the same state of mind as Samia: “We attack what is used for everyday life. Public service is touched to the heart. I don’t even understand the symbol. »
Nissra is of this opinion, resident of Aubervilliers for more than forty years, she regrets that the rebels attack “what is theirs”. “That’s our heritage. Only we need these buses. These are the buses that my daughter takes to go to work, why don’t they burn in front of the ministries. »
Luckily, her daughter was able to wake her up to ask her to drive her to work. This is not the case for “Mouss”, who has just hung up on his boss: “I can’t walk to work. Transport should resume this afternoon, I will go and make up my hours next week. Finally if he can as he says, fearing that the movement will last and harden in the days to come. An RATP agent, a few meters away, has just confided in him the same concern.
Several public service locations affected
If she does not wish to give her identity out of reserve for her work, she recounts the difficult morning for her and for the users. “With colleagues, we have done our best to criss-cross the various stops affected by the suspension of service and provide information. » A work of information necessary but without effect on the needs of the users. “Here, not many people have a car, or even a bicycle. Transport is by bus, metro and RER. People are helpless because we have no alternatives to offer them. »
If transport, partly stopped on Thursday evening at the request of Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, resumed their service in dribs and drabs from 6:30 a.m. this Friday morning, at 10 a.m., 23 of the 350 lines buses from Paris and its inner suburbs were still at a standstill.
Other public services were affected by the degradations of the night, the construction site of the future nearby Olympic training pool too. Just a few dozen meters from the still smoking buses, the Courtillières neighborhood center is also healing its wounds. Located in a neighborhood where the night was very turbulent as evidenced by the dozens of tear gas canisters and the mortars of fireworks that litter the sidewalks and the traffic lane, it is its entire glass front that was broken. Nicole* has tears in her eyes watching them with her neighbor. “It’s for the kids here, why attack these places. That’s the 9-3, we live the double life sentence. Discriminated because we live here, because we are bullied for what we are, we take revenge on ourselves every time. »